What are the best analytics for search engine marketing ( SEM )?

This year Jupiter analysts reported that 81% of paid search marketers use analytics tools other than those provided natively by Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft adCenter. With the rise of Google Analytics I guess that’s not surprising… but still it seems a bit high.

The authors go on to state that “entry-level” hosted packages such as Google Analytics and Microsoft adCenter Analytics allow marketers to get started at no cost, but the tools lack valuable metrics.

Hmmmnn.  Ok, retail SEM gurus, what is it that you really need from your SEM analytics packages? Of course, there are a thousand things we want… but what is that we really need and use daily?

Based on what you need and use regularly, who provides the best solution? Remember, we’re talking paid search analytics not bid or campaign management.

I’ll seed the discussion. Here’s what I look for in an SEM analytics package:

Must haves

• Intraday keyword, ad goup and campaign level conversion metrics
• Must integrate SEO and SEM analytics
• Robust first-party cookie tracking methodology
• Ad / keyword performance filters to quickly identify issues and opportunities

Should have

• Line item order detail on conversions - not just order level detail
• Full cross-channel (beyond SEM and SEO) tracking with multiple channel attribution methodologies
• Tracking URLs and a tracking server

Nice to have

• Integrated product cost information for profit margin analysis
• Integrated inventory information so as to predict future performance (i.e. out of stock condition on product specific keywords / ads)

What do you think?   We’ll all benefit by your comments…